The illustration above (which to see properly you now have to click on...) is by Max and was published in El País on 21st March '08.

I'm signed up to Annimanni's bookring
"Al-Naqba" by Barbara Goldscheider, an interesting-sounding first novel. Trying not to commit to so many bookrings etc in order to have more time for the lovely books I have waiting my attention on my own shelves! That said, I couldn't resist the opportunity
to read another Ito Ogawa book, this one
"Le jardin arc-en-ciel".

Following on from my discovery of George Borrow, I've recently read about the writer Matéo Maximoff and am looking out for any of his novels in their original French. So too on the look out for Quentin Crewe's "A Curse of Blossom".

Of the 323 books that I've released into the wild, in 8 different countries, just around 34 have been caught (my most recent wild catch was
in a church).

The list of books on my wishlist is becoming longer than I ever thought it would be. Reading one book often leads me towards others that I'd like to track down, and so my wishlist is more than anything else my means of keeping track of those I wish to read
one day.

I don't really like the title "Friends list" (too reminiscent of primary school), and think of it rather as a "Thank you list" and will keep it as a record of the several people who have generously agreed to pass their book onto me, and for which I am most
grateful.